| Whenever you come across a home with soft
stucco damage, there is a very good chance that there won't be a weep
screed installed at the bottom of the stucco.
A weep screed allows the moisture that gets into the stucco a path out
at the bottom of the stucco wall. The weep screed also separates the
stucco wall from the moisture in the ground.
In a situation like the picture above, the builder stuccoed the wall
about 6 inches below the concrete footing and then someone poured a
concrete sidewalk next to the stuccoed wall.
Any moisture that the concrete sidewalk retains can easily be absorbed
into the stucco wall. This might be hard to imagine, but the stuccoed
wall can easily pulled moisture from the soil and concrete sidewalks up
the wall about 3 feet.
If you look at the picture above, you will easily see that this stucco
damage is about 36 inches from the ground. It's hard to imagine, that
the concrete sidewalk will actually absorb moisture from the ground and
then transfer it to the stucco wall, creating the possibility of stucco
damage later on.
One of the biggest problems with soft stucco damage occurs once someone
paints the stuccoed wall. The paint will actually keep any moisture in
the stucco that gets absorbed into it through the ground or tiny small
spots in the stucco that weren't painted.
Home Repair Tip: You're going to need to remove the damage stucco and
replace it. When you do remove the damaged soft stucco, make sure that
you install a weep screed and make sure that your soil or concrete
sidewalks, aren't touching the weep screed.
One of the worst things that you could do is bury the weep screed in
soil or pour concrete up against it.
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